Trump's new tax cut plan probably waits for 2019: lawmaker

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FILE PHOTO: Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady (R-TX) holds up a sample tax form as he speaks during a media briefing after the House Republican conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 17, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives’ leading lawmaker on taxes suggested on Sunday that a new tax cut plan touted by President Donald Trump was unlikely to see action in Congress before 2019, and then only if Republicans keep their majority in Nov. 6 elections.

“Really common sense tells you that this (Trump’s new tax cut plan) is something, that as the Republicans retain the House and the Senate, that will advance in the new Congress,” Representative Kevin Brady said on Fox News.

Brady was discussing a new 10 percent middle-class tax cut proposal that Trump began touting earlier this month.

Brady did not completely rule out that such a measure could be brought to a vote before year’s end, but said the session of the outgoing Congress which begins in mid-November is “so unpredictable.” Brady spoke on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Trump’s new 10 percent tax plan is widely seen by lobbyists as only the latest Republican campaign messaging exercise on taxes. All 435 U.S. House members and one-third of the Senate are running for re-election in the Nov. 6 elections.

The Republican-controlled House also passed a “Tax Reform 2.0” bill with individual tax cuts last month, before leaving Washington to campaign for re-election.

That bill, which would make permanent individual tax cuts from Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, has not passed the Senate, where Republicans have a narrow 51-49 majority. Brady said Sunday he thought Senate passage of that legislation, too, depended on the outcome of voting on Nov. 6.